“Letter from London” was the theme of a conference held on 16 December 2017. Alexandros Kallegias joined the architectural scientific conference that took place at the premises of the SNF Cultural Center in Athens, where successive generations of Greek architects shared their experience of being educated, having taught and worked in the United Kingdom from 1955 to 2015.

A series of lectures by distinguished architects were held, and attendance was high for the duration of the conference. The series covered ways in which different aspects of the discipline have affected the Greek architectural landscape through the influence of the British education system. Having experience in both the applied and the academic architectural field, Alexandros focused his lecture on the research that is being conducted through his AA Visiting School programmes in Greece.

The lecture reflected on the development of an avant-garde theoretical movement across the different years and iterations of the AA programme in Greece. The studies are the output of a continuous educational scheme that unites the AA with the Greek educational institutes and their collaborative work is proof of thought. While the output of these studies comes in the form of an architectural prototype for construction and movement, Alexandros discussed the correlations of theory and practice and contemplated the discipline’s progression with regards to its tooling.

“Letter from London” ConferenceImage Credit: Antonis Petroulias

These correlations are fundamental and the experience of joining one of the AA’s programmes in Greece allows participants through hands-on design and fabrication techniques to shape their ideas in a clear and direct manner. That experience was presented in the conference with case studies that include works in collaboration with the NTUA School in Athens, the Architecture School of Patras, and the creation of Aethyr, as well as the creation of Eos in collaboration with the AUTH School of Thessaloniki, and research studies with the Open People’s University in Chania, KAM Center of Mediterranean Architecture and the AKTO Design College in Athens.

Alexandros completed his graduate studies at the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory. His research thesis on architectural computation and robotics has been included in the publication of the conference’s book. The publication summarises the aim of Alexandros’ thesis to develop a responsive design system that allows an instantaneous on-site design and fabrication process. The design system uses an initial site evaluation in combination with a swarm of robotic arms. Alexandros’ research interests in robotic architecture and computational design have also been a main part of the programmes that were presented in the conference which he leads including the AA Summer DLAB, the AA Athens Visiting School and the AA Greece Visiting School.